Benedict Lust, Naturopathy, and the Theory of Therapeutic Universalism James C
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Iron Game History Volume 8 Number 2 Benedict Lust, Naturopathy, and the Theory of Therapeutic Universalism James C. Whorton Ed Note: Dr. James C. Whorton is one of one considers that the notion of complemen- America's most distinguished medical tariness that has blossomed so profusely historians. As a faculty member in the over the last decade is one that has per- medical school at the University of vaded naturopathic thought from the Washington in Seattle, his research profession's beginnings. It was, in over the past two decades has pri- fact, an essential element of the guid- marily focussed on the often antag- ing philosophy formulated by onistic relations between the founder Benedict Lust, a philosophy worlds of alternative medicine, that he described as "Therapeutic physical culture, and traditional Universalism." medicine. In addition to his latest Naturopathy, as the practice book—Nature Cures: The History was originally known, developed in of Alternative Medicine in America the late 1890s under the direction of (New York: Oxford University Lust, a German youth saved from Press, 2002)—many IGH readers tuberculosis through treatments admin- would find Dr. Whorton's earlier book, istered by the renowned water-curist Crusaders for Fitness, of great interest. Sebastian Kneipp at his institution near Published in 1982, Crusaders for Fitness Munich. Determined to honor his rescuer details the history of the pioneers of fit- Benedict Lust in 1911. by serving as his emissary to the New ness and includes discussions of such World, Lust journeyed to New York City in major figures as Bernarr Macfadden, Sylvester Gra- 1896 to preach and practice the Kneipp system in Amer- ham, William Alcott and others. Much of the ica. Almost immediately, however, he began enlarging research for Nature Cures was done here at the Phys- on Kneipp's methods with the addition of dietetics, ical Culture Collection at the University of Texas, herbs, massage, electrotherapy, sun baths, and other ele- Austin; we were delighted to be able to assist Dr. ments of the German nature cure tradition. Soon, the Whorton. musculoskeletal manipulations of early osteopaths and chiropractors were adopted as well, and by 1901 Lust Among the most influential forces nurturing the had decided upon a name for his broad amalgam of ther- concept of complementary or integrative medicine in apies—naturopathy. That year he opened The American America in recent years has been the system of naturo- School of Naturopathy in New York, and the following pathic medicine. Yet of all the major unconventional year launched the Naturopathic Society of America; he approaches to health care now flourishing in the United would serve as the organization's only president until his States, naturopathic medicine stands apart as the only death in 1945.1 system not to have been accorded serious attention by The name naturopathy was intended to convey historians. This neglect seems all the more curious when the principle that the cure of any case of illness is ulti- 22 October 2003 Iron Game History mately accomplished by the healing power of nature that resides in every individual, a power that should be sup- ported and stimulated by the agencies of the natural world. Strictly speaking, of course, naturopathy means "natural dis- ease," not "natural healing," and from the beginning the term was criticized, even by naturopaths, as misleading. Nevertheless, the bedrock of naturo- pathic etiology was that indeed "natural disease" is the root of all illness, because bodily dysfunction can invari- ably be traced to violations of nature's rules of right living. This view was graphically presented in a "tree of dis- ease" drawn by naturopath Henry Lind- lahr in the 1910s. There one was shown the full range of human infirmities, from colds to cancer, growing out of a trunk impaired by what was labeled "Accu- Benedict Lust began the Yungborn Nature Cure in 1896 on 60 acres in the mulation of Morbid Matter in The Sys- Ramapo Mountains near Butler, New Jersey. In 1911, when this photo of the tem." The soil from which the trunk of main recreation building was taken, Yungborn reportedly had more than 100 physical impurity rises is that of "Viola- guests taking the nature cure. tion of Nature's Laws" of diet, exercise, and other com- tion of the body's "natural power"—but a virtual infini- ponents of hygiene, violations occurring because of ty of healing agents—all of nature's benevolent forces.3 humanity's ignorance, indifference, lack of self-control, Grand as it already sounds, Therapeutic Universalism and self-indulgence. Where allopathic doctors blamed nevertheless extended far beyond the utilization of all disease on insults to the body from outside, particularly the natural modalities in the universe. Indeed, the final infection with microbes, early naturopaths saw all sick- goal of natural treatments, as Lust saw it, was not the ness originating within the body ("Germs" appear elimination of physical disease, but the restoration of among the tree's branches, but they are labeled as a dis- human beings' appreciation of their proper place in the ease, not a cause). Rather than being the innocent victim natural order of the cosmos. The "principal object" of of some alien pathologic entity, each person was respon- naturopathy, he asserted, was "to re-establish the union sible for attacking his own body with unnatural habits of of man's body, brain, heart and all bodily functions— life; illness was nature's punishment for the self-abuse. with nature." Advocating what a later generation would From that perspective, "natural disease" was an apt call holistic healing and ecological medicine, Lust interpretation of naturopathy.2 required matriculants at his American School of Natur- Still, the preferred translation was "natural heal- opathy to study not only herbalism and hydrotherapy, ing." Naturopathy, as Lust defined it, was an approach but also such subjects as Self-Culture, Mental Regener- to healing that utilized "the beneficent agency of ation, Pure Love, Soul-Marriage, Mental and Divine Nature's forces." Those forces could be administered in Healing, Spirit-Unfoldment, and God-Consciousness.4 every form from water and herbs to electricity and sun- As the course on God-Consciousness suggests, light, but in every case operated the same way, by assist- early naturopathy was energized nearly as much by reli- ing nature to remove the "Accumulation of Morbid Mat- gious currents as medical ones. Prerequisite for the ide- ter" in the body. As Lust defined it in 1903, naturopathy al of union of body, brain, and heart with nature was the was a system of "Pathological Monism and Therapeutic awareness that people are beings within a universe cre- Universalism"; it recognized only one disease—inhibi- ated and governed by a beneficent God, and that the laws 23 Iron Game History Volume 8 Number 2 of health are divine commandments whose honoring fied, "believes in his system not only as a science and an earns favor from the Creator and whose violation brings art, but as a religion that will, if followed, lead humani- deserved punishment. Lust looked all the way back to ty to the heaven of health and happiness." the Garden of Eden to frame his physical theology. In that context, it was possible for naturopaths to There, he sermonized, "man did not suffer from sick- propose in complete seriousness that the first and still the ness," but lived in perfect health on "what mother Earth greatest adherent of the art was none other than Christ; produced." Then came the Fall, an act of disobedience Jesus, one asserted, was "a most proficient Naturopath." which involved, after all, "a forbidden meal," an act of Imagining that sort of pedigree, it made sense for Lust to unnatural hygiene. Adam and Eve were expelled, and set forth the revolutionary import of his system by "man no more remained in direct connection with the observing that a great spiritual upheaval had occurred in earth....In the same measure as man grew more unnatu- Western civilization approximately every 500 years, ral and sinful, sickness and all misery arose."5 beginning with Christ and followed by Muhammad, the The unnatural and the sinful were linked in the Crusades, the Reformation—and now naturopathy.8 naturopathic worldview by practitioners' commitment to Naturopathy expected to achieve what earlier vitalism, the belief that life derives from and is sustained religious movements had vainly attempted to do by by some power or spirit that transcends the chemical and recruiting errant humanity to what Lust called the physical forces that govern the phenomena of the inor- "Regeneration Cure," a regimen of right living that ganic world. Natural methods worked because they act- restored physical strength and energy while also bring- ed upon the vital force resident within every human ing about a state of "spiritual...rejuvenation." Toward being, stimulating it to restore the body to wholeness. that end of regeneration of body and soul, naturopathy's But that force, naturopaths proclaimed, was not merely founder established in rural New Jersey a nature camp of vital; it was in fact divine spirit, every living thing's own sorts that he called the Yungborn, or fountain of youth. parcel of "the Omnipotent Power, which created the uni- There clients spent their days hiking, sunbathing, mud- verse." It was Therapeutic Universalism indeed!6 bathing, frolicking nude in mountain streams, and sub- If the vital force were the same as omnipotent sisting on vegetable foods and herb teas. As one satis- power, it followed that the misery generated by unnatu- fied patron summarized the regeneration experience, ral living could as readily be spiritual as physical. In one naturopath's telling, "transgression of natural law" was Mister Lust can make you well, responsible not just for all bodily infirmity, but if you will let him lay "all...poverty, misery, worry, vice and crime" as well.